


Impulse

by spoilerjinx



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Future Fic, Impulse, Multi, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 14:25:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8331187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoilerjinx/pseuds/spoilerjinx
Summary: When female speedster Impulse arrives in the year 2016 by mistake, she reveals to Barry her name is Dawn Allen and that she's arrived to 2016 by mistake. Team Flash allows her to stay in Central City, since having Barry see the future trying to take her back would alter the past. The more Dawn is around Barry, the more of a familiar feel he gets around her. (Bad summary I know, it's my first story so please cut me some slack)





	1. Chapter 1

The speedster ran for her life. Her legs were moving faster than the speed of light, a new barrier only known to have been broken by the Flash. She didn't stop running, even when she was sure that she had lost the other speedster. For extra measure she flashed into the first building, not stopping until she could no longer run. She bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for air. She was in a lab, with multiple people staring at her. She panted heavily, trying to regain her strength. She wasn't going to be standing for much longer.

"H-help..."

Then darkness.

***

"So she just passed out?"

"Zoomed in, gave an over dramatic cry for help, then dropped like a fly. Straight out of the plot a CW show."

"Why didn't you take off the goggles? See if she's someone we know."

The speedster's eyes shot open and she dashed from the area. She stopped at the desk of the lab, clinging onto it for dear life. She was not done healing. 

The Flash made his way to her slowly. "Whoa. Steady. You're not ready to bounce just yet."

The other speedster went into a panic. "Ohmigosh I am so so sorry! I didn't mean to! Please don't kill me!"

The Scarlet Speedster's face contorted. "What?"

Her jaw dropped. "How long was I out?!"

"Only for like five minutes."

She stared at him. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Should I?"

Her eyes widened. "Uh oh..." 

He sighed. "Time traveler or earth bouncer?"

"Trying to figure that out. What year is it?"

"2016."

She gasped. "Holy Superman..."

She began zooming around the room, only a yellow zigzag formation visible. Only Barry could hear her frantic talking at sonic superspeed.

"Oh my god. I time traveled. 2016. That's dinosaur time. Dad was right. Oh god how do I get back? Dad's gonna kill me!"

Barry raced and grabbed her, keeping her still. "Calm down." She was shaking, but due to her speed it was becoming rapid vibrations. Her brown hair was flying in her own manmade wind, her green eyes tearing up.

"Wait, if I...then I don't have to say anything...and I—" A smile broke out on her face. She broke free from Barry's grasp. "I'm crash now."

"Crash...?"

Caitlin Snow ran out into the lab, carrying a clipboard. "Who are you?"

The speedster smiled. She zipped around the room.

"The name's Impulse." Zip. "Fastest girl alive." Zip. "Though my civilian name is Dawn." Zip. She appeared in front of Barry, hand outstretched. 

"Dawn Allen."


	2. Allen?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Cisco try asking Dawn where she's from and who she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for short, crappy chapters! The more I get into it the more in depth and descriptive it will be!

Barry stammered. A smile still plastered on his face. "I-I'm sorry, I think I missed that. Wha-what did you say your name was?"

"Dawn Allen. Dawn Nora Allen to be technical. Dawn like when the sun rises, Nora like Dora but with an  _N_ , and Allen like...well I'm pretty sure you can figure that one out big guy."

Cisco's eyes widened. "Allen?"

She looked over and whispered a bit too loudly, "This Flash _is_ Barry Allen, right?"

The villain that the Flash had apprehended looked intrigued. "The Flash is Barry Allen?"

Her face flushed. "Oops." She looked at the villain. "Oh hey Brain Teaser!" She grinned at Barry. "Don't worry. You'll find out that he suffers from short term memory loss. That's how come he has that screen on his arm. It's how he writes down stuff he wants to commit to long term memory."

"Thanks..."

The villain smiled. "Well I remembered how to break out of my cell."

Impulse smirked. "About that..."

Before anyone could blink, Brain Teaser had been placed back in his cell and with and a new lock. "Coat the lock with a water barrier, and he'll electrocute himself before he can break out again."

Cisco looked at Caitlin and Barry, then turned back to her. "Heh, thanks."

"I'm hungry. I have to consume about 10,000 calories a day to stay active, and I've run off all my juice. Do you guys have Big Belly Burger in 2016?"

Barry put a hand up. "Hold on. We have some questions."

"Sure, but does Big Belly deliver in 2016? I'll pay. President West is on the twenty dollar bill in this time, right?"

Caitlin pushed her head forward. "Joe becomes president?"

Dawn laughed. "Of course not! Kanye does."

"That's it, we're moving to Canada!" Cisco announced. 

Dawn's stomach growled loud enough for the whole room to hear. Her gloved hand gripped her tummy, and she looked apologetically at them. Caitlin went to order Big Belly Burger. Her suit was outlined in red, as was her middle. A yellow lightning bolt glows from her chest, and it matches the one on her utility belt. The same color is on her boots. Red goggles covered her eyes, but the the bright green color couldn't be masked. Her eyes looked ridiculously familiar...

Barry texted Joe, telling him to get to STAR Labs as soon as he could, before having Dawn sit. 

"What year are you from Dawn? Or do you prefer Impulse?"

" _You_ prefer Dawn."

"I do? But I have never met you."

"From the future! Remember?"

He nearly facepalmed. "Oh right. Sorry. It's been a rough day. What year is it?"

"2016."

"I'm confused."

"BARRY!" Cisco snapped them out of it. "You guys are talking at superspeed."

He realized Dawn, who is already a fast talker, went on hyperspeed in nervousness, and Barry subconsciously caught up with her. He'd have to add "speed speak" to his list of skills. Cisco tried to talk this time. "So Dawn, what year are you from?"

"2036, exactly. Year of the wombat."

"Twenty years from now," Barry confirmed.

"Is 2036 really the year of the wombat?"

Dawn shrugged at Cisco's question. Barry asked her age.

"Fifteen. Born December 3, 2021." 

"And do your parents know where you are?"

She gave a sheepish grin. "Not...exactly."

The lightning on her belt buckle began blinking. Cisco pointed.

"Why did your belt suddenly become a turn signal?"

Her eyes went straight to the buckle. "They're tracking me."

"Who?"

"My godfather. I forgot there's a GPS on my belt buckle! As long as I'm in uniform, he can track my location."

The blinking became faster. She panicked. and grabbed her ears. "OW!"

"What's wrong?"

"Static..." she squeaked out. "He's trying to contact me, but it's all static." She closed her eyes and gripped her ears in pain. 

Barry stood in awe. "Cisco..."

"On it!" He  rushed over to Dawn and disconnected her earpieces from the frequency. The earpieces were attached to the suit; there would have been no way for her to remove them without her facing any pain.

"Thank you."

"No prob."

"Abbreviations of words. So crash."

"We're off topic," Barry reminded her. "Why did you come this far back in time?"

Dawn's face fell. "I... don't know. I was running, faster than ever before. I didn't even know that time travel was possible until now. I was always told it was a myth. Guess I've been lied to."

"How are you a speedster?"

"My dad is one. His DNA was mutated when he was struck by lightning, and the mutation passed onto his offspring. I broke the sound barrier when I was five. I've always been fast. I drove my mother crazy." 

"Who is your father?" Barry asked.

She looked a bit lost. "You really haven't figured it out, have you?" She gave a weak smile. "My dad is the fastest man alive. The Scarlet Speedster. Red Lightning. Sultan of Speed, the Monarch of Motion." Barry still looked confused. "The Crimson Comet? There's plenty more nicknames." Barry's confusion and denial was plain on his face. Dawn rolled her eyes.

"My father is The Flash, or known by his civilian alias Barry Allen." She waited for some sort of reaction from either Cisco or Barry. Both stayed frozen in place.

"Hello?" She poked her head forward. 

"You're my father!"

 


	3. Slow Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang has some questions for Impulse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, my sister gave birth to a miniature human!

Barry and Cisco stood in awe for several minutes. Barry stood and stared at the girl claiming to be his child from the future. He couldn't believe it, yet he could see resemblance to her and Nora, his mother. The same eyes; the same nose. There was no doubt she could biologically be a relative of his, yet he could see a familiar resemblance he could not quite place.

Dawn, as impatient as ever, rocked on her heels as she waited for someone to say something. Anything. Finally she reached a point where she could no longer take the silence.

"I know. I'm too gorgeous to be Barry Allen's kid."

Nope.

"What, is there something in my teeth?"

Zilch.

"Cat got your tongue?"

Nada. "Holy Superman..." She took a deep breath.

"SAY SOMETHING!"

Barry's mouth opened, and his jaw moved up and down, forming words, but no voice was to be heard. Cisco finally broke their silence. 

"Bare?"

"Yeah?

"She looks just like you."

"I know."

"And she's a speedster."

"I know."

 "And she can hear you,"Dawn said.

"We know."

She groaned just as Caitlin entered with enough Big Belly Burger to satisfy an army, or in this case a speedster with an appetite.The teenager's face lit up with delight. Within seconds she had flashed in to grab it and had eaten most of it.

"Whoa whoa!" Barry called. "You're going to give yourself a stomach ache."

"You sound like my dad," she said, before bursting out into giggles. "Oh wait."

Barry, not knowing how to react, was quick to change the subject. "Dawn, I think you'd know my colleagues." He gestured to Caitlin. "Dr. Caitlin Snow—"

"Who?"

He bit his lip. "Moving on. And this is Cisco Ramon."

"Hey you're my godfather!"

"What?" His eyes welled up and he turned to Barry. "You'd make me the godfather for your child?!"

"Uh...I guess so..."

Cisco stepped forward. "Who's your mom?"

"Cisco!"

"Don't blame me for asking!" He became extremely giddy. "This is so exciting. Come on, let's think back to all the girls you dated. Linda Park?"

"You dated Aunt Linda?!" Dawn's jaw nearly fell to the floor.

"Okay so that's an obvious no." Cisco said, taking a Twizzler from the pack on his desk and beginning to gnaw. "Felicity Smoak?"

She snorted. "No."

"Patty Spivot?"

"Who?"

The boys looked at each other. "That only leaves—"

"Iris got stuck at the office. She said she'll be here as soon as she can," Joe announced as he made his way into the room. He stopped the second he spotted Impulse. "Who is this?"

 Dawn's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Poppa!" 

Joe looked confused, but was quick to turn to Barry for clarification. 

"Come on, I'll explain in the hall."

***

"So your future child accidentally used the speedforce to travel twenty years back in time?"

"Yes."

"And she's too drained to go forward and you're not allowed to help in fear of moving the timeline?"

"Yep."

Joe sighed and rubbed his face. "Now I've seen everything." He stuffed his hand in his pocket. "So what are you going to do with her now?"

Caitlin stammered. "We thought about maybe keeping her here. We could run some tests, and she wouldn't be an  _absolute_ threat to the timeline.  Until she'd find her way back home, she'd be confined to a floor of STAR Labs to ensure she couldn't change the past."

"So you'd turn her into a lab rat and then make her a prisoner afterward?"

Caitlin fell silent, not knowing what to say. 

"She'll be coming home with us," Joe decided before anyone could defend Caitlin. "I know from once being the father of a teenaged girl that locking them up all day makes them rebellious. Whenever Iris was not allowed to leave the house when she was grounded was when she got into the most trouble. Confining her to one place is going to make her want to break out even more, which will disrupt the future more than it would otherwise."

"Joe I—" Barry started.

"She's family." Joe looked into his eyes. "No matter what time she is from, she is family. And family sticks together."

* * *

**CENTRAL CITY, 2036**

Barry Allen marched into STAR Labs with a look of fury. "Cisco!"

The scientist bounced up with a look of terror. "B-Barry! Long see no ti—I mean no time long see— I mean what brings you here?"

The taller man crossed his arms over his chest. "Dawn disappeared today after lunch and hasn't been seen since. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Cisco couldn't even try to get away with lying. He sighed, raking a shaky hand through his hair. Barry growled with rage and dared to step closer to him. "Where is she, Cisco?"

Cisco didn't know how to answer.

"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?!"

The man jumped up. "She thought she had a lead on the guy who killed—"

"You let her go out, didn't you? I told you that she was too young for this lifestyle and you strap her in a suit and go against my wishes! If you got my child killed—" 

"She's not dead, Bare. Her vitals are still registering as normal. She was chasing him and suddenly she was just gone. Like poof. Yet her tracking device says she's in this room."

The man known as the Flash had a realization come to him. His green eyes widened and he began to panic. "She's in the speedforce. She's traveled through time. Because of you she's in another time and has no idea how to handle it! I've gotta go find her."

He began to storm off. 

"Barry wait!"

Humoring him, Barry Allen turned around.

"You're gonna need me to find her. I could vibe to her location—"

"No, Cisco. I don't need your help. Every time I need your help, someone I love pays the price." He scoffed and shook his head. "You know, stints like this are part of the reason we're no longer friends.

With that, a determined father walked out, deciding to refuse his former best friend's help in order to find his daughter.

 

 


End file.
